Multitasking on Google Lollipop

Deans not doing anything well, it’s a critical function of mobile app performance. Users expect to be able to jump quickly between tasks, and can get frustrated if they have to wait for content to re-load when moving from one application to another.

With Lollipop, Google has completely reconfigured how multitasking looks and performs. Instead of just dropping the user back into the app, it allows developers to break apart separate tasks, which then appear as a cascade of distinct windows.

It gives developers and users more power, as it’s quicker to get back to and find a certain state within an app. Not only can the user get directly back to work, but the developer can make the app more useful for productivity.

The combination of this with the new Material Design is also more aesthetically pleasing, allowing Android apps to have the same kind of polish and elegance that is typically found in iOS.

For the developer, this means making several more decisions about how the app will perform. Fortunately there are several good principles to follow for enabling the right design and programming decisions.